John Lydon loses bid to represent Ireland at Eurovision
Public Image Ltd frontman and former Sex Pistol John Lydon has lost his bid to represent Ireland at this year’s Eurovision song content. Wild Youth emerged as the winner following the vote on Friday night. The musician performed his song ‘Hawaii’ – a dedication to his wife, Nora, who has Alzheimer’s – backed by Public Image Ltd on RTÉ’s Late Late Show but wound up finishing fourth out of six acts.
Wild Youth took the lead with their song ‘We Are One’. Before his performance, Lydon spoke about Eurovision in fond terms “This is something that I watched when I was young with my parents,” he said. “I remember Johnny Logan, I remember Cliff Richard, I remember Sandy Shaw – and now Johnny. It’s as good as any other way of listening to music, I don’t have any prejudices about things like that.”
The punk icon added that he was feeling nervous about performing ‘Hawaii’. “I don’t know what I’m going to go through doing this today,” he confessed. “I’m even shaking now thinking about it.” He went on to say that he was “terrified of mugging it up, getting it wrong, letting people down – mostly letting Nora down”.
Just before the voting results were announced, the 67-year-old musician appeared to anticipate his defeat when the host asked him if he’d enjoyed his time in Dublin. “No, I have not, but that’s not the point.” The vote was decided by a national jury, an international jury and public voting. Lydon was awarded 18 points in total, putting him squarely in the middle of the table.
Wild Youth won 34 points for ‘We Are One’, which was written with help from the Grammy-nominated songwriter Jörgen Elofsson. The band’s singer, Conor O’Donohoe, said: “We hope everyone can get behind the song and that we can do everyone in Ireland proud. We want to thank all of our families, they have supported us from day one.”
Lydon may have upset Eurovision fans when he described the contest as “awful” and “phoney”. He later put the comments down to stress. William Lee Adams, chairman of the international jury for Eurovision in Ireland last year, believes “[Lydon] erased a lot of the goodwill folks had for him when they first heard his song. There’s a sense of, ‘We wish you and your wife the best, but your comments are just too insulting.’”
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